Mexico Cancels Meeting with President Trump, Repeating They Will NOT Pay for His Border Wall
It seems President Trump has already hit a roadblock in his negotiations with Mexico on funding his proposed border wall.
One day after Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday to begin construction on the wall, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has canceled plans to meet with Trump next Tuesday to discuss trade and immigration.
“This morning we told the White House we won’t attend next Tuesday’s meeting with @POTUS,” Peña Nieto wrote on Twitter in Spanish on Thursday morning, according to Politico‘s translation. “Mexico reiterates its will to work with the US to achieve agreements for both of us.”
Peña Nieto’s message comes after Trump threatened to cancel the meeting himself in a tweet earlier on Thursday.
The U.S. has a 60 billion dollar trade deficit with Mexico. It has been a one-sided deal from the beginning of NAFTA with massive numbers…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2017
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of jobs and companies lost. If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2017
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Trump was responding to a video statement Peña Nieto posted to his Twitter Wednesday night, in which he said he “regrets and rejects” Trump’s orders cracking down on illegal immigration, and stressed: “I have said it over and over again: Mexico will not pay for any wall.”
Peña Nieto also addressed his nation, declaring that “Mexico does not believe in walls” and promising to protect Mexicans in the United States. “Where there is a Mexican migrant at risk that requires our support, your country should be there,” he said in Spanish, according to the NBC News translation. “Our communities are not alone. The Mexican Government will provide them with the legal advice, which guarantees the protection they require. The 50 Mexican consulates in the United States will become authentic advocates for the rights of migrants.”
Un mensaje para todos los mexicanos: pic.twitter.com/EFcNh7fQtm
— Enrique Peña Nieto (@EPN) January 26, 2017
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After Trump signed executive orders Wednesday — one to begin construction on his wall (using federal funding that he has promised will be “reimbursed” by Mexico) and another to boost the U.S. Border Patrol — Peña Nieto said he was consulting with Mexican officials in Washington, D.C. to decide on “the next steps” regarding the now-canceled meeting.
“Mexico offers and demands respect as the fully sovereign nation we are,” he said, according to NBC News.
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Former Mexican President Vicente Fox put it even more bluntly to Trump’s White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Wednesday.
“Sean Spicer, I’ve said this to @realDonaldTrump and now I’ll tell you: Mexico is not going to pay for that f—ing wall.#F—ingWall,” Fox tweeted.
Spicer, traveling with the president to Philadelphia, downplayed the standoff with America’s ally to the south. Of the canceled meeting with Mexico’s Peña Nieto, Spicer told reporters aboard Air Force One: “We will look for a date to schedule something in the future. We will keep the lines of communication open.”
